Attorney General Points to Possible Prosecutions for Inducing Perjury

Attorney General Gideon Hausner of Israel has recommended to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion that the “appropriate bodies” should consider whether the services of a regular Army officer involved in the “Lavon Affair” should be retained. The regular officer, now a reserve officer, neither of whom has been publicly identified, had been involved in charges of forgery, perjury and subornation of perjury in connection with the case.

Although foreign correspondents in Jerusalem were not permitted by the censorship to transmit the Attorney General’s report, it was published extensively in the Israeli press and copies were sent abroad through all channels except radio press communications.

The report recommended continuation of the investigation into the question of possible forgeries, holding that the committee headed by Supreme Court Justice Haim Cohn had not been able to complete this phase. The report advised that “the investigation may be completed so that a final conclusion may be reached.”

The Attorney General said that the Cohn Committee’s findings indicated that there might be grounds for filing charges of false swearing against the reserve officer.

The official’s report said the Cohn Committee had found that the reserve officer, with the knowledge of the regular Army officer, had made contact with a third man to induce him “to testify in a particular way” before the Olshan Committee in 1955. He said this attempt contained “an element of subornation” and that “both knew that what they were trying to do was subornation.”